Cherishing Life
by Suspense Master
Summary: Shion Sonozaki, torn apart by the fact of not being able to love Satoshi, meets someone who teaches her the importance of life. Now, she wants her family to feel the same pain that she's always felt ever since she was born.
1. Chapter 1

Shion Sonozaki looked at her bandaged hand, the one she used to relinquish her sins. Why did this have to happen to her; why couldn't her sister just tried to help her when she cried out for help? That stupid Grandmother of hers, that whole family of hers, her sister included! They gave her sister everything while her self was tried like an outcast; first sending her away, then denying her a love interest. She should be able to love like her sister and every other human being does!

She mashed her teeth together. Anger consumed her as she clenched her bandaged hand, ignoring the pain. She wanted to do something to them, to her sister and Grandmother for everything that she had become. A knock came to her door. Shion got up and went to her door, opening it to find her sister there. Shion's eyes turned to steel. "What do you want?" she coldly asked her.

Mion felt uneasy with the attitude her sister was giving her. "I... just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing."

"Get out of my sight!" she spat at her. Mion was taken aback by this cold tone her sister was giving her.

"Wait Shion," Mion said to her as slammed the door... right on Mion's hand! She pulled and pulled, trying to free her grip but Shion only applied pressure. "How is it? Does it feel good, do you want more?" she asked, letting go of the door to free Mion as she fell to the floor. Déjà vu played in as Shion looked down at Mion with the same look back at the torture room of the Sonozaki Estate. "Don't let me see your face in my sight again!"

Shion went inside while Mion just looked on in complete disbelief at what had transpired. She knew her sister was never one to try and hurt her before when they were kids, so why did this happen now? The secretly younger twin could hear various glass objects breaking as well as screams of pain from her sister. "Maybe it's because of tearing out her fingernails," she silently said to herself, knowing that was the only thing that would cause her sister to go breaking things to quell her temper.

Not wanting to know if Shion was planning on using her as a practice dummy, Mion sprang to her feet and high-tailed it down the hall out of the apartment complex, practically scared out of her wits. First, Shion gave her a cold tone and smashed her hand, and then she started hurling glass and other objects across the room like they were baseballs for the playing field.

Mion started to feel regret for not doing anything to try and help her sister when she was going through that miserable pain, but she kept that stone-face on so her family wouldn't make her go through the exact same thing. Now, Shion's mentality seems like it was going in a downward spiral of madness... and the one person that should take the blame was their Grandmother. What her grandmother did, it's no wonder Shion went off like that.

Another thought popped in her head. "I love Keiichi, and she loves Satoshi, but the difference between that is Satoshi and Shion's love is not allowed with Grandmother." As she walked down and out of the complex, her thoughts continued as she looked back at the building, hoping that her sister was going to be alright. "Don't worry, sis... I'll fix this for you."

*

A few hours later, Shion was out on the town of Hinamizawa, still in pain with the ordeal of not being able to love someone from the Hojo Family. Stopping at one of the convenient stores, she grabbed a few items and dumped them into the hand basket, bumping into someone by mistake. "Oh sorry, I didn't see where I was looking," she said, looking at the person. It was a man, possibly in his forties or fifties, judging by his hair.

"It's quite alright, ma'am," he spoke in a ragged voice.

Shion finished her shopping; the man watched her as she went to the counter to pay for her items. As she left the shop, she heard the man from behind. "I was wondering if I could talk with you."

"Why would you want to?"

"You seem depressed about something... something that has to do with your life."

Her life... yeah, she was depressed about her life. She was out casted by the people who were supposed to care about her, left for dead at a private school, and denied love... so yes, in a way, she was depressed, _very _depressed. "Is there anyplace a bit more private we can talk?"

*

Shion led the man back to her apartment, it was still littered with broken bits of glass and the chairs were thrown in every direction. "For this to happen, you must have a lot of pain inside of you, right?"

Shion nodded. "By the way, I never got to ask you your name."

"My name is John, John Kramer."

The mention of his name made her blood run cold, her eyes lost their color as did her skin. This was him, the notorious murderer. "You're the Jigsaw Killer, the one who kidnaps people and murders them!"

John shook his head. "No Shion, I am not a murder, I despise murderers. I'm what you would call a rehabilitator, someone who gives people life by showing how to appreciate their own."

"But why are you here in Hinamizawa?"

"I've heard that there's a doctor in this village that might be able to help me with the disease that's eating away at me. Yours on the other hand, is more robust than mine, I would assume."

Shion nodded. "Could I ask you a question?"

He nodded. "Have you ever been said that you can't love someone?"

John shook his head. "No, everyone should be given the chance to love one another. It's the ways of life. Did you have someone who you loved?"

"I did, but my family said I was forbidden to have a relationship with him." She clenched her hands into fists and lifted up her bandaged hand. "I was forced to remove three fingernails in order to forgive the people around me... my own sister didn't even try to help!"

The dam broke—Shion told John everything that had went on in her life when she was first born and he listened to what she said, all while thinking to himself as to how a family could just abandon their own child and focus on the one who deserved everything—it disgusted him. "Do you wish your family gave you the same love as they do your sister?"

"More than anything," she said.

"Do they appreciate what's been given to them? Most people are ungrateful of the things that they've been handed. Have you show appreciation for being alive today?"

"Of course I do. But because of my own sister, I'm not allowed to love someone who is hated by this village, Hinamizawa. I want them to know pain and misery for what they made me go through, and I'll do it one way or another!"

"Revenge is not the answer, Shion. The only way to feel these people have appreciated life is to test them."

"But how?"

"Are you willing to put them through their tests to see if they can survive their own faults?"

Shion was silent for a moment, looking down at the table, having a mental war. Part of her wanted to go through with it, to show her family that she should be loved, too, just like her sister was, and not some useless piece of garbage, but another part of her said to not go through with it and let them be. She couldn't let it go... they caused everything to her, especially that wretched Grandmother of hers.

She raised her head and looked back at John. "I'll do it."

John nodded. "You will give every cell in your body to me, Shion. In order for you to understand the value of life, you must be faced with death... only then will you know immortality. The wounds on your fingers are from your old life... you can't go back to it. If you come with me, there's no going back to the way things were. Is that understood?"

Shion looked back down and then back at him. "Yes. What will I need to do?"

*

Hojo Teppi said goodbye to the last of his friends and closed the door. Another wild night those guys were having, nothing but booze, smokes, and food; now he was ready for long night's sleep. He knew Satoko was asleep, so he didn't have to worry about her, hell... the guy never cared about her to begin with! Heading to his room, he went in and began set up his futon on the floor—he knew something was out of place, hearing footsteps outside his door.

He thought it was just Satoko heading for the bathroom so he brushed it off and continued to set up his bed. He saw black; he struggled against the person who had him in their grip, but he feel to the ground, lifeless.

What was left of Teppi's mind only registered what he could hear before he was totally slipped into unconsciousness. Hours had passed when he was awake; he looked around, seeing he was in some kind of room, but couldn't tell what kind. Teppi got up from the floor, shouting obscenities at nothing and looked down at the microcassette player on the ground. Picking it up, he pressed play.

"Hello Teppi. I want to play a game. In your life, you've made a living making the lives of others miserable, including your own foster child. Now we'll see if you're willing to make yourself miserable in order to forget about your abuse towards others. What you are looking at is a maze, but of razor wire. If you can't get through the maze before four o'clock to the door, then the door will lock, making this room your tomb. Live or die, make your choice.

Growling and screaming, he threw the tape player against the wall and began to tear at the wire, feeling its sharp teeth bite into his hands. Somewhere in the old building, Shion watched the entire thing on the monitors with Jigsaw at her side. "You chose a good test subject, Shion," he complimented.

"I just want to know if he understands survival," she said.

"We'll see if he can survive. But this is how you understand... my work is very important to me, ever since that day I wanted to end it all."

On the monitor, Shion watched as Hojo Teppi scrambled through the razor, desperately trying to ignore the pain. Hours had passed and Shion came back to the monitor, seeing as Hojo had failed at the game. "Game over," said Jigsaw, looking at the monitor. Going over to a table with surgical implements, he picked up a knife and ordered Shion to follow him; she did. What she saw Hojo Teppi go through was something that she knew the importance of appreciating life, the things that Jigsaw wanted her to go through, since he had told her that he didn't have much longer to last. His work was vital to him and he wanted it to continue, that was the reason he took Shion in like a family... a _real _family, not just someone who turns their back on them and leaves them to rot.

No... John saw her as a daughter, someone dear to him since his first child was taken away by greed; she was like a replacement for it. For Shion, when he had finished removing the piece of flesh from Hojo Teppi, she broke down into tears, rushed up to John and hugged him like a scared child. He was puzzled by this, wanting to understand why she was crying and why she was hugging him. Shion looked at him and said, "Thank you for caring for me."

The rehabilitator's eyes softened as he fought to control his own emotions—he couldn't. Weeping silently, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug and she returned it. For once in Shion's life, she was happy to have this kind of person care about her, even if he was a person who hurts others. This person Jigsaw was holding onto was a girl, who was abandoned by love, but just by letting her accompany him, she left love for him; he did as well.

John gently pulled her away and looked into her eyes. "Do you understand my teachings? Do you feel that you can show others the meaning of life?"

Looking at the Hojo's corpse, and remembering the game he had to go through in order to survive, she understood the way of what he was teaching her. "I need to learn more," she said to him.

"And you shall," he replied, both of them leaving the room. In Shion's mind, she knew the people she wanted to play her games... their time would come soon when she would find then and put them to the test to see if they could survive for what had happened.

But she would not go untested...

*

_**Black Waltz**__**: **_This is just a one-shot... I still haven't debated on the fact wether I should have made it into a series; I'll leave that up to you guys. Happy Halloween to all and please review, let me know if you feel this deserves to be a series or not, seeing as there are probably plenty of Saw and Higurashi fans out there. Also, that little bit I put in with John and Shion, you need to understand that I'm bad at romance, it's not my cup of tea like other fanfic writers... and I had to use the trap from the first Saw movie because I wasn't creative enough to come up with my own but I'm sure that I'll think of something, if this wanted to be a series. You are also entitled to help out if you like, just let me know.

Again, please review.


	2. Chapter 2

Shion Sonozaki paced in her apartment, her mind wandering back and forth about what had transpired in that dungeon of the Sonozaki Estate. Back and forth she paced, she could still feel pain in her heart, why did she have to be out casted by her family and her sister having the good life? She deserved that life, too, not just her. If they were to tell the truth about they were who they really were, then she would be given the right as heir since, in reality, she was the older one and Mion was the younger one... no, it would just be the same for Mion. They didn't want to be treated differently; they wanted to be treated equally.

Negative thoughts began fill her head, seeing her sister act cold and stoic when she had to rip her nails out as a sign of forgiveness for what she had done. Mion should have done something, she thought to herself.

Her pacing increased faster as she felt the urge to chew at her hand that had her fingernails, the one that still had them.

A ring came at the door and she went to it, her dark thoughts still played into her head about what happened. Her sister claimed that she was a strong person, but when it came to something like _that_, she was a coward. All that talk about her being masculine was pure horseshit! She was weak on the inside when it came to helping her own sister out of a pickle she was in. She probably didn't want to let down that walking prune.

Opening the door, she saw the last person she wanted to see. "What do you want?"

Mion was taken aback by the cold tone that her sister was giving her. "Hi, Shion. I thought I'd come by and visit."

Her sister just scoffed at her. "Alright, come in, then."

Hesitantly, Mion came into her apartment and the two sat down at the table in silence, the clock on the wall ticking was audible to both of them. They looked down at their hands unsure of how to start a conversation. The only think they could think of was the distinction that Shion had to endure back at the torture room, where she watched with cold eyes as her sister took off her nails; she wanted to help her but she was afraid of what their grandmother would do.

"So... how have things been?" Mion asked, hoping to start things off nice and slow.

"Peachy," Shion said, huffing.

Mion looked at her. "Sis, are you okay? Did I do something wrong to make you act like this? You know I can help you if you want me to."

Hearing this, Shion began to chuckle. "Help me, that's a good one. Since when are you the kind of person to help me? I don't remember anyone in the Sonozaki Family helping me! Were you helping me when I was forced to take off my nails?"

The younger sister only looked down in shame. "Mion, answer your older sister," Shion said, her personality going back to being the older sister, like it was before they switched.

"No Shion."

"Did you want your sister to suffer?"

"Of course not, I would've helped you."

"Then why didn't you, or were you scared of not satisfying that old bag?"

Mion didn't know the answer to that one. Shion was the real head of the Sonozaki Family in her eyes... but to others, Mion was the one to lead on the family. Mion didn't know what more she could do that would help her sister. "What if I talked to Granny about us?" Mion knew that by telling their grandmother about them and the reasons why they did what they did, she would understand. Oryou would also want and explanation as to why and her anger would rise up to high levels; it would also raise her blood pressure.

"She wouldn't understand. She never understood anything. All she cared about was you, you were the only important one, and what was I to her? Nothing! Everybody in the Sonozaki Family gave you everything and I wanted to be treated with that kindness. They never appreciated having me in this family!"

"Don't say that!" Mion said. "They all care for you deep inside, but with our old traditions it's hard to have them show love to you."

"Shut up!" Shion shouted, rising up from the table and rushing to her wrapping her hands around her neck. Mion looked at her elder sister in fear; Shion's eyes showed intense hatred and sadness that was so deep, it took over her body and gave her the commands of what she should do. The elder twin let Mion fall to the floor while she looked up at her. "Don't come back here, Mion. You and that family of ours think nothing of me. When I see you, I see my grandmother looking at me, not a sister. That tells me that I don't have a sister anymore."

Those words hit Mion deep in her heart. "Shion... I, I didn't mean for you to have to go through that, I swear! Please, we can work this out, right?"

Her expression didn't change. Looking coldly at her younger sister, Shion didn't say anything. She grabbed hold of Mion and threw her out of her apartment only looking back at her and saying, coldly, "Remember, don't let me see you here again!"

The door shut on her loudly while Mion just looked at it, unable to come to terms with what she went through with her sister. Was it really her fault that she didn't help her when she distinguished herself for the family? No, she was just doing the job as the head, that's what Oryou wanted, it was their tradition that they always went by.

Being able to have the whole village to their will was something that she knew Oryou took pride in and that took hard work to get where she was, but she was on a thin line with her lifespan. Now she wanted Mion to be the exact replica of her when she passes away, but after having this talk with her sister about what she should've done, she was regretting having to be upcoming heir to the Sonozaki family.

If she told her grandmother everything, would it be alright? Of course not, she would raise hell and want some answers from both of them... and probably want their heads as well.

Thoughts of how she would tell this to her mom and grandmother wouldn't leave her head as she walked back to her bike to go back to her house.

The moment of truth was almost with her.

* * *

Oryou Sonozaki coughed, covering her mouth. She lay on her futon, thinking about certain things that have been going on in this village. The Cotton Drifting Festival was coming around and she wanted to make sure that all the recommendations were in place for it. So much had been going on it her life she could feel it in her heart—it was wearing down, her health was deteriorating everyday now. She didn't have to worry about what would happen about the family; she had Mion to thank for that.

Reaching beside her she grabbed a small packet and tore the bag open and put its contents into her mouth before chasing them down with some water. Her medicine was the only thing prolonging her life to help teach her granddaughter. Oryou was always a strong woman when she wanted to be, she took much greatness in her family traditions, there were some that could never be broken.

With somebody new to take charge of the family, maybe she would finally put an end to all this talk about tradition and start things anew. Akane Sonozaki looked at her mother before going back to writing down the will.

Her door slid open; she saw her granddaughter Mion walk in and take a seat across from her bed. She bowed in respect before speaking. "Grandma, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"Is it something important?" Oryou asked, looking at her with a smile.

"Well... in a sense, yes it is. It's about me and Shion."

This sparked some interest in the old woman. "What is there to say about her?"

"I know that our tradition is very important to you, but she didn't deserve to be the black sheep of this family."

"I'm sorry, but you know that we can't have twins in this family as it goes against the rules of how our family does things."

"Well then, what if I told you something that happened a long time ago."

"What do you mean?" asked her mother, now taken interest in this conversation as well.

"When Shion and I were younger, we used to play around a lot and switch identities with each other to fool everybody, but when the day came to mark the elder one with tattoo," she looked at her mother, "you separated Shion and I and gave me the mark as heir to the Sonozaki family when it should have been Shion that should've been the heir."

"What are you saying, you know Shion is younger that you," said her grandmother.

Mion shook her head. "No, that's not it. The person you're looking at is the younger twin, Shion, and the older one who should be the right heir is Shion, who is the real older twin, Mion."

Time froze in place, not a single word was uttered while the elderly woman and her daughter tried to find their senses and speak about what they weren't told about. Different emotions erupted on the inside as the mother of the family was in shock but she wasn't on the height as Oryou was… she was pissed about so much, her clenched hands gripping the blanket were so fight she was making it shake from her trembling, tearing it slightly.

"WHY WAS I NOT TOLD OF THIS? YOU MEAN THAT ALL THIS TIME THAT LOW LIFE IS THE RIGHTFUL HEIR AND NOT YOU?"

Mion flinched at the high tone in her grandmother's voice, it shook her to the core but she remain clam on the outside but inside, she was breaking down as she fought back a shudder from the iron stare that her grandmother was giving her. "Don't call her that," Mion said, "she's not a worthless person… she deserves everything like me, but because of your tradition, you won't let her have a life with the family that's supposed to love her." Mion turned to look at her mother, "You of all people should know that. The reason why we switched when we were kids was because we didn't want to feel left out so we took turns being one another and then when I got branded with the tattoo, you didn't know I was the fake Mion."

"And this continued on until now?" Akane asked, still listening closely.

Mion only nodded when she looked at her grandmother who was about to say something but she coughed violently, covering her mouth. The green-haired could only watch as the elderly woman was helped by her mother. After her coughing was done, she looked at her but tried to compose herself but Mion knew that she was losing control.

"What will you do with Shion?" asked Mion.

"Mion… I don't know what I should do about her, after what you told me. What you told me, I should cut off both your heads for it but seeing as my condition is getting worse, I won't," Oryou said.

"But she's not the only one whose in shock about this, I am too. I think it's best you leave us for while so we can figure this out for ourselves," said her mother.

"But, will everything be okay… will Shion still be my sister?"

Silence was the only thing she was met with before she bowed her, got up, and walked out of the room, closing the door on her way out. Thoughts filled her head—Shion's cold piercing gaze, her hands around her throat threatening to squeeze the life out of her for everything she put her through. Was everything her fault? Hell yes, all the shit she put her sister through and all she did was watch.

Hands raised, she touched her throat lightly. "Was she really going to do it? Does she hate me that much?"

* * *

_**Black Waltz**__**: **_And that, my friends, is a wrap for this chapter. I apologize for it coming so late, I have problems I'm dealing with and trying to get things cleared up. I'm also trying to get back into school after not doing so well with online classes, and I pray that things will be better for me. On a side note, I've been reading a lot of my books… I have seventeen books, all ranging from horror to fantasy, to how to write better, to one crime novel, The Town by Chuck Hogan, which is better than the movie.

Anyway, I'll be catching up on my reading and catch you guys later.


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